THE country’s finance chief has reaffirmed the national government’s commitment to fully support and implement the initiative of bringing genuine autonomy to the Bangsamoro people, even amid the crisis spawned by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Carlos Dominguez, Department of Finance (DOF) secretary, said in a statement yesterday the second meeting of the National Government-Bangsamoro Government Inter-Governmental Relations Body (IGRB) conducted online last week to thresh out several concerns is the “clearest indication” of the administration’s resolve to help ensure the success of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“I assure you the agencies of the national government serving as counterparties in these coordination mechanisms are as fully committed to move forward with this bold initiative in autonomy,” Dominguez said during the May 29 meeting with BARMM officials held via the Zoom teleconference tool.
Dominguez said the national government has been impressed with the Bangsamoro government’s commitment “to build a fully capacitated bureaucracy with meritocracy as its guiding principle,” and has seen how BARMM is “fully committed to bringing social services closer to the people and transforming the (region) into an engine of growth in Mindanao.”
Minister Mohagher Iqbal of the BARMM Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, thanked the national government for holding the meeting despite the COVID-19 emergency.